Communications on May. 31, 2002
* Society of Jesus in Korea to Seek Active Apostolate Policy
The Society of Jesus in Korea adopted active apostolate policy of "go looking for people" by establishing the "diocesan collaboration" as the primary apostolate field of the Society.
At the 2002 General Assembly of the Society held at the Regional House in Sogang University from May 18 to 19, the participants discussed the apostolate orientation of the Society for the new millennium and decided to take a positive attitude for diocesan collaboration apostolate aimed at meeting the needs and requests of dioceses in a close contact with the latter.
The Most Rev. Boniface Choi Ki-san, Bishop of Inchon, was invited to give a lecture about what he expects from the Society of Jesus in Korea as a diocesan bishop and what kind of role he wants them to play in the Church and Korean society.
The participants agreed that the Society has to offer diversified helps to the dioceses and the faithful and to extend apostolate activity field by promoting necessary studies and developing various programs of education, retreat and spiritual direction etc. and proposing them to the dioceses and the faithful instead remaining in a passive way of apostolate by responding when there are requested.
The resolution of the Society is based on the understanding that it is time for the Society to concentrate itself on the apostolate activity and on its role of collaborators and helpers and to realize it by assisting the diocesan activity in a close relationship of cooperation with the dioceses and the faithful.
In this line, the participants decided to develop systematically plans to broaden the understanding of diocese by allowing newly ordained priest members to have pastoral experience as diocesan priest for 1-2 years of period with consent of their respective diocesan bishop.
"High interest in apostolate activity in collaboration with dioceses was shown in questionnaire," said Rev. Lee Yong-wu, Secretary General of the Society of Jesus in Korea and added "as the members of the Society have increased, one of the problems which confronting us is to broaden our apostolate activity field by turning our focus from formation of members to the development of apostolate."
* Catholic Church in Korea Celebrates the Eighth "Day for Life"
On the occasion of the Eighth "Day for Life" various events were held in the dioceses to promote the dignity of life on May 26.
The Research Institute of Family Pastoral Ministry of the Diocese of Suwon awarded the first "Angelo Life Scholarship"(Director: Rev. Benedict Song Yeong-o) on May 26.
The Angelo Life Scholarship was created this year to promote the dignity of life and as part of the "Campaign to have three children".
The scholarship was granted to nine students including 2 middle school students and 7 high school students.
"The Church has to take initiative in constructing the culture of life by overcoming the culture of death as the rate of abortion is increasing day by day," Rev. Song insisted in his homily.
In the meantime, the Diocese of Cheongju held the first "Vigil of Life" on May 25 at the Roller Skating Rink located near the Diocesan Office with theme of "Light of life to this land!" Rite of light, candlelight procession, oath of protectors of life and ceremony of awarding prizes were taken placed in the presence of 1000 participants of clergy, religious and laity including the Most Rev. Gabriel Chang, Bishop of Cheongju, and Rev. Kim Won-taek, the vicar general.
During the homily the Most Rev. Chang said that "it goes without saying that the most precious thing in the world is our life," and went on "the life is not ours but God's, thus we have to remember that we have no right to do with our life as we like," and called the faithful to repent all sins against life and to take resolution to be protectors of life.
After the ceremony the participants made a 2-kilometer candlelight procession by saying Rosary.
* Lay Leaders Ask Clergy to be Example of Respect for Elderly
On May 25, the Lay Apostolate Council of Korea(President: Mr. Yeo Kyu-tae, Director: Rev. Francis Chung Wol-gi) held lay leaders' meeting for the synod of the Archdiocese of Seoul at the Catholic Center in Myongdong.
Divided into small groups, the participants discussed the seven subjects of the synod prepared by the preparative committee of the synod of Seoul Archdiocese; clergy, laity, administration of Church, mission and education etc.
Various proposals were presented by the participants such as; we should strengthen the premarital education since the family violence is the first reason of divorce; to give more consideration to women who count more than half of the faithful so that they can play a central role in the parishes; we should promote regular education program of re-education of the faithful on parish level; it is desirable to open the parish space to neighbors as part of co-existing way with local community etc.
They expressed the wish that priests would show examples of respect for elderly, saying that if they are respectful to the elderly many problems of elderly will be solved, and examples of friendly relationship with Sisters working in parishes, and they wished Bishops to be close to the faithful so that they can hear the voice of the faithful.
The Most Rev. Nicholas Cheong, Archbishop of Seoul, made clear in his opening address that the primary purpose of the synod is animation of Christian life of the faithful and wished the synod to be an opportunity of maturity of the faith.
* 'Day of Environment' Spurs Concern for Environment within the Church
For the Day of Environment on June 5, the Most Rev. John Choi Young-soo, President of the Committee for Justice & Peace of the CBCK, issued a message titled "Let us change first our way of life," asking the faithful to take the lead in environmental movement through a renewed way of life such as saving water and reducing food waste.
In the message, the Most Rev. Choi urged people "to participate in environmental movement aiming at preserving all the things God entrusted to us," noting that the Pope John Paul II mentioned environmental problems as one of the most urgent problems of humanity today in his encyclical Fides et Ratio.
He pointed out that environmental problems threatening the ecological order is one aspect of serious "moral crisis" and emphasized that "to overcome this crisis we should undertake radical conversion of thoughts regarding the environment."
Urging to change a way of consumption and of life, he said, "we should first abandon bad habits of wasting water and food waste."
"It is not a proper attitude to splurge on food and water while in another side lives are dying due to the lack of food and water. Now we should recognize that reducing food waste is our own business which must be done to save our land, air, water and life," he continued.
He also stressed the duty to protect environment for healthy earth and the well-being of future generation and called for efforts to save sick earth by emptying our self-interest.
Meantime, the Subcommittee for Environment under the Committee for Justice & Peace of the CBCK decided to initiate some practical movements for preservation of God's creation order.
As a part of such movements, the Subcommittee plans to publish and distribute catechetical materials on environment for elementary, middle and high school students and to form a committee for that purpose. The Ministry of Environment of Korean Government will collaborate on this work by providing related materials and organizing a joint inspection tour between Church pastoral workers and government officials.
Under the project objective of "Save Water & Reduce Food Waste," the Subcommittee encourages parishes, Church bodies and the faithful to practice simple but effective activities such as to install devices for saving water, to use the method of microbic fermentation for disposing food waste, and to reduce food waste down to almost nothing.
The Subcommittee is also making contribution to 'Green World Cup', promoted by the Ministry, by publishing "Guidelines for Environment-Friendly Activities of Citizens for World Cup" and distributing them to ten dioceses where games are to be held.
Earlier than this, a meeting was held at the CBCK building on May 27 in which participated the Minister of Environment Kim Myeong-ja(Helena), heads of bureaus of the Ministry and priest, religious and lay Catholics who are in charge of environmental matters in each diocese.
At the meeting the Minister said, "the role of religion is very important in coping with environmental problems" and asked the Catholic Church to lead the environmental movement through spirituality of life and sharing.
Rev. Paul Lee Chang-young, Executive Secretary of the Subcommittee, said, "we will develop environment-friendly campaigns in collaboration with other religions as well as all dioceses in the country".
The reason why the Church focuses on reducing food waste is that it can be easily done with just a little attention in daily life and needs no additional resources.
In Korea, every year 46,000 tons of food waste is produced, which is equivalent to 15 trillion won, 13% of national budget.
Of food waste, which takes up 25% of all living waste, 53% is produced by families and 30% from restaurants and 12%, markets.
For now, about 45% of food waste is recycled. However, as people do not separate waste properly, the rest cannot but be buried or burned up, requiring some 40 million won of disposal cost. Moreover, burying food waste in earth causes bad smell and pollutes water and land and incineration also produces dioxin, a substance causing cancers and deformed children.
Given that more than 6 million of people are dying of hunger worldwide and that we have also 160 thousand of starving children in Korea, reducing food waste is a good way of sharing food with dying lives.
With regard to this, various Church bodies are seeking for ways to reduce food waste. President of Catholic Women's Association Oh Deok-ju said, "we have educated housewives on practical activities such as the proper menu planning and prudent shoppings". Similarly, Park Hye-sun, environmental pastoral worker in the Archdiocese of Seoul, suggested to buy reasonable amount of organic food.
The Society of Jesus in Korea adopted active apostolate policy of "go looking for people" by establishing the "diocesan collaboration" as the primary apostolate field of the Society.
At the 2002 General Assembly of the Society held at the Regional House in Sogang University from May 18 to 19, the participants discussed the apostolate orientation of the Society for the new millennium and decided to take a positive attitude for diocesan collaboration apostolate aimed at meeting the needs and requests of dioceses in a close contact with the latter.
The Most Rev. Boniface Choi Ki-san, Bishop of Inchon, was invited to give a lecture about what he expects from the Society of Jesus in Korea as a diocesan bishop and what kind of role he wants them to play in the Church and Korean society.
The participants agreed that the Society has to offer diversified helps to the dioceses and the faithful and to extend apostolate activity field by promoting necessary studies and developing various programs of education, retreat and spiritual direction etc. and proposing them to the dioceses and the faithful instead remaining in a passive way of apostolate by responding when there are requested.
The resolution of the Society is based on the understanding that it is time for the Society to concentrate itself on the apostolate activity and on its role of collaborators and helpers and to realize it by assisting the diocesan activity in a close relationship of cooperation with the dioceses and the faithful.
In this line, the participants decided to develop systematically plans to broaden the understanding of diocese by allowing newly ordained priest members to have pastoral experience as diocesan priest for 1-2 years of period with consent of their respective diocesan bishop.
"High interest in apostolate activity in collaboration with dioceses was shown in questionnaire," said Rev. Lee Yong-wu, Secretary General of the Society of Jesus in Korea and added "as the members of the Society have increased, one of the problems which confronting us is to broaden our apostolate activity field by turning our focus from formation of members to the development of apostolate."
* Catholic Church in Korea Celebrates the Eighth "Day for Life"
On the occasion of the Eighth "Day for Life" various events were held in the dioceses to promote the dignity of life on May 26.
The Research Institute of Family Pastoral Ministry of the Diocese of Suwon awarded the first "Angelo Life Scholarship"(Director: Rev. Benedict Song Yeong-o) on May 26.
The Angelo Life Scholarship was created this year to promote the dignity of life and as part of the "Campaign to have three children".
The scholarship was granted to nine students including 2 middle school students and 7 high school students.
"The Church has to take initiative in constructing the culture of life by overcoming the culture of death as the rate of abortion is increasing day by day," Rev. Song insisted in his homily.
In the meantime, the Diocese of Cheongju held the first "Vigil of Life" on May 25 at the Roller Skating Rink located near the Diocesan Office with theme of "Light of life to this land!" Rite of light, candlelight procession, oath of protectors of life and ceremony of awarding prizes were taken placed in the presence of 1000 participants of clergy, religious and laity including the Most Rev. Gabriel Chang, Bishop of Cheongju, and Rev. Kim Won-taek, the vicar general.
During the homily the Most Rev. Chang said that "it goes without saying that the most precious thing in the world is our life," and went on "the life is not ours but God's, thus we have to remember that we have no right to do with our life as we like," and called the faithful to repent all sins against life and to take resolution to be protectors of life.
After the ceremony the participants made a 2-kilometer candlelight procession by saying Rosary.
* Lay Leaders Ask Clergy to be Example of Respect for Elderly
On May 25, the Lay Apostolate Council of Korea(President: Mr. Yeo Kyu-tae, Director: Rev. Francis Chung Wol-gi) held lay leaders' meeting for the synod of the Archdiocese of Seoul at the Catholic Center in Myongdong.
Divided into small groups, the participants discussed the seven subjects of the synod prepared by the preparative committee of the synod of Seoul Archdiocese; clergy, laity, administration of Church, mission and education etc.
Various proposals were presented by the participants such as; we should strengthen the premarital education since the family violence is the first reason of divorce; to give more consideration to women who count more than half of the faithful so that they can play a central role in the parishes; we should promote regular education program of re-education of the faithful on parish level; it is desirable to open the parish space to neighbors as part of co-existing way with local community etc.
They expressed the wish that priests would show examples of respect for elderly, saying that if they are respectful to the elderly many problems of elderly will be solved, and examples of friendly relationship with Sisters working in parishes, and they wished Bishops to be close to the faithful so that they can hear the voice of the faithful.
The Most Rev. Nicholas Cheong, Archbishop of Seoul, made clear in his opening address that the primary purpose of the synod is animation of Christian life of the faithful and wished the synod to be an opportunity of maturity of the faith.
* 'Day of Environment' Spurs Concern for Environment within the Church
For the Day of Environment on June 5, the Most Rev. John Choi Young-soo, President of the Committee for Justice & Peace of the CBCK, issued a message titled "Let us change first our way of life," asking the faithful to take the lead in environmental movement through a renewed way of life such as saving water and reducing food waste.
In the message, the Most Rev. Choi urged people "to participate in environmental movement aiming at preserving all the things God entrusted to us," noting that the Pope John Paul II mentioned environmental problems as one of the most urgent problems of humanity today in his encyclical Fides et Ratio.
He pointed out that environmental problems threatening the ecological order is one aspect of serious "moral crisis" and emphasized that "to overcome this crisis we should undertake radical conversion of thoughts regarding the environment."
Urging to change a way of consumption and of life, he said, "we should first abandon bad habits of wasting water and food waste."
"It is not a proper attitude to splurge on food and water while in another side lives are dying due to the lack of food and water. Now we should recognize that reducing food waste is our own business which must be done to save our land, air, water and life," he continued.
He also stressed the duty to protect environment for healthy earth and the well-being of future generation and called for efforts to save sick earth by emptying our self-interest.
Meantime, the Subcommittee for Environment under the Committee for Justice & Peace of the CBCK decided to initiate some practical movements for preservation of God's creation order.
As a part of such movements, the Subcommittee plans to publish and distribute catechetical materials on environment for elementary, middle and high school students and to form a committee for that purpose. The Ministry of Environment of Korean Government will collaborate on this work by providing related materials and organizing a joint inspection tour between Church pastoral workers and government officials.
Under the project objective of "Save Water & Reduce Food Waste," the Subcommittee encourages parishes, Church bodies and the faithful to practice simple but effective activities such as to install devices for saving water, to use the method of microbic fermentation for disposing food waste, and to reduce food waste down to almost nothing.
The Subcommittee is also making contribution to 'Green World Cup', promoted by the Ministry, by publishing "Guidelines for Environment-Friendly Activities of Citizens for World Cup" and distributing them to ten dioceses where games are to be held.
Earlier than this, a meeting was held at the CBCK building on May 27 in which participated the Minister of Environment Kim Myeong-ja(Helena), heads of bureaus of the Ministry and priest, religious and lay Catholics who are in charge of environmental matters in each diocese.
At the meeting the Minister said, "the role of religion is very important in coping with environmental problems" and asked the Catholic Church to lead the environmental movement through spirituality of life and sharing.
Rev. Paul Lee Chang-young, Executive Secretary of the Subcommittee, said, "we will develop environment-friendly campaigns in collaboration with other religions as well as all dioceses in the country".
The reason why the Church focuses on reducing food waste is that it can be easily done with just a little attention in daily life and needs no additional resources.
In Korea, every year 46,000 tons of food waste is produced, which is equivalent to 15 trillion won, 13% of national budget.
Of food waste, which takes up 25% of all living waste, 53% is produced by families and 30% from restaurants and 12%, markets.
For now, about 45% of food waste is recycled. However, as people do not separate waste properly, the rest cannot but be buried or burned up, requiring some 40 million won of disposal cost. Moreover, burying food waste in earth causes bad smell and pollutes water and land and incineration also produces dioxin, a substance causing cancers and deformed children.
Given that more than 6 million of people are dying of hunger worldwide and that we have also 160 thousand of starving children in Korea, reducing food waste is a good way of sharing food with dying lives.
With regard to this, various Church bodies are seeking for ways to reduce food waste. President of Catholic Women's Association Oh Deok-ju said, "we have educated housewives on practical activities such as the proper menu planning and prudent shoppings". Similarly, Park Hye-sun, environmental pastoral worker in the Archdiocese of Seoul, suggested to buy reasonable amount of organic food.